Wang Jing ‘honored’ by Nicaragua canal concession

Fifth installment in a series on Nicaragua’s canal plans

By:Tim Rogers / Nicaragua Dispatch | June 13, 2013

(posted June 13, 3:05 p.m.)- Less than one hour after the Sandinista-controlled National Assembly voted to ratify Nicaragua’s 50-year canal contract to upstart Chinese firm HKND Group, the newly awarded Chinese concessionaire released a pre-prepared statement thanking Nicaragua for the opportunity to develop the project.

“We are honored to be given the opportunity to develop this transformational project that has the potential to bring tremendous, long-term economic benefits to Nicaragua, to the region, and to international shippers and consumers around the world,” said HKND Group Chairman Wang Jing in a company press release that was published in three languages moments after the vote. “We are committed to building and operating the Nicaragua Canal and Development Project in accordance with international best practices. It is very early in a long process, and we have a lot of work ahead, but we want to be clear that we intend this to be a world-class effort that creates economic opportunity, serves the global trade community, and also protects the local environment, heritage, and culture of Nicaragua.”

Looking Relaxed: Wang Jing (photo/ HKND)

“We are confident that this project will be an economic success for Nicaragua, for the region, for trading partners around the globe, and for HKND Group,” Wang stressed.

While very few details are known about HKND—the company is only several months old, and is registered in the Cayman Islands—the Chinese firm has started its public-relations offensive with a high-powered PR firm in Washington, D.C.

“We have enlisted a global team of world-class experts to support HKND’s feasibility studies on multiple fronts, including outreach over time to a range of stakeholders with an interest in this new project,” says former Bolivian politician and HKND spokesman Ronald MacLean-Abaroa. “Moreover, a leading sustainability consultancy will conduct an independent environmental and social impact assessment. By definition, this is a truly global initiative, and we are committed to operating in a transparent and open manner with participation of entities from around the world, according to high standards of environmental and social responsibility.”

HKND Group claims that ERM, “one of the world’s leading sustainability consultancies,” is in the process of independently assessing the environmental and social impact of various routes under consideration. ERM did not answer Nicaragua Dispatch’s request for information this week.

HKND also says that China Railway Construction Corp. has been engaged to conduct the initial technical feasibility assessment and that McKinsey & Company is providing HKND with fact-based research and analysis.

“Initial findings from HKND’s commercial analysis indicate that the combined impact of growth in East-West trade and in ship sizes could provide a compelling argument for the construction of a second canal, substantially larger than the expanded Panama Canal, across Central America,” the company said in its release.

HKND says it thinks in 16 years the volume of trade addressable by the Nicaragua Canal will have grown by 240%.

“The fuel savings provided by the deployment of larger ships on the trade routes served by the Nicaragua Canal could be substantial. For example, going from Shanghai to Baltimore, the new route is 4,000 kilometers shorter than the Suez Canal route, and 7,500 kilometers shorter than around Cape of Good Hope. At current fuel prices, for an average size containership, this represents roundtrip savings of US$500,000 and US$1.0MM respectively,” the company claims.

“There is an enormous amount of work to be done, and we will provide future updates on our progress as we address key milestones ahead,” says spokesman MacLean-Abaroa.

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Nicaraguan farmers are threatening to pull their kids from school if the government doesn’t halt plans to build a $50 billion Chinese canal through their communities. Anti-canal activists in several dozen farming communities along the canal route are circulating petitions asking parents to boycott the 2015 school year, which starts next Monday.

Nicaraguan farmers are threatening to pull their kids from school if the government doesn’t halt plans to build a $50 billion Chinese canal through their communities. Anti-canal activists in several dozen farming communities along the canal route are circulating petitions asking parents to boycott the 2015 school year, which starts next Monday.

As in Bagamoyo (Africa) and Gwadar (Pakistani-Iranian border), part of the “agreement” to build these projects, includes the no-so-distant Chinese blue-water navy’s right to resupply, refuel and/or repair its warships while they patrol America’s oceans.

Moreover, these projects only benefit the Chinese massive manufacturing exports to the region. No local jobs will be created as the Chinese have over 900 million, rural, underemployed, and angry Chinese demanding opportunities as those living in China’s metropolitan cities.

asap

Soem times the first to start construction of a canal are not always the group that reaps the benifits… other wise the French would have been the developers of the Panama Canal

(posted Jan 26, 11:15 pm) —Nicaragua’s opposition Independent Liberal Party (PLI) today called on President Daniel Ortega to work towards finding a peaceful solution to growing political violence in the northern mountains of Jinotega after a weekend attack with a mysterious backpack bomb killed three alleged rearmed contras in the municipality of Pantasma.

Adding a wrinkle of confusion to a mystery shrouded in doubt, a spokesman for the Chinese canal in Nicaragua announced that the route has been redrawn to circumvent a farming community that has been energetically protesting the $50 billion project for months.

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Editorial
With an obsequious bow to Russian expansionism, Nicaragua this week joined North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and five other model democracies in rejecting a UN resolution that reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukraine. The UN resolution, which calls the Crimea referendum invalid and urges a “peaceful resolution” to the crisis following Russia’s annexation of the peninsula, was supported by 100 nations and rejected by 11.

As Sandinista faithful mobilize in the streets of Managua to pay homage to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the one-year anniversary of his death, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan analysts predict the international project he started won’t outlive its founder for much longer. President Daniel Ortega, who is traveling to Venezuela to pay official tribute to his former benefactor, honored Chávez as a revolutionary who “fought for the people, fought for America, fought for humanity, fought for peace and fought for justice.”
Prior to leaving for the airport today, Ortega said that now, “more than ever,” the countries belonging to the alliance created by Chávez will “continue to fight for peace, for justice, for liberty and for the sovereignty of our people.”
But just a year after the loss of Chávez’s charismatic leadership, and amid the ruin of Venezuela’s economy, the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA) —Chávez’s brainchild for regional integration — appears to be collapsing under the weight of its own ambition.